WASHINGTON - The selection of the next head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should reflect the changing realities of the global economy and not on the basis of nationality, meaning the tradition that requires a European chief, the fund's five key emerging market economies executive directors said on Tuesday.

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"The convention that the selection of the managing director is made, in practice, on the basis of nationality undermines the legitimacy of the fund," said IMF directors for China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Russia, or BRICS countries in a joint statement, rejecting that the successor to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn should continue to be a European.

The recent financial crisis which erupted in developed countries, underscored the urgency of reforming international financial institutions so as to reflect the growing role of developing countries in the world economy, noted the statement.

The new global economy requires "abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe, it said.

The Washington-based international financial institution initiated the nomination period to select its next leader on Monday and it will close on June 10.

Strauss-Kahn resigned on May 18 after being arrested and accused of sexually attacking a maid at the Sofitel New York hotel on May 15.